Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network created by the US-based technology company Ripple Labs Inc. in 2012.

Ripple offers a coin that it says would offer banks and payment providers a “reliable, on-demand option” for liquidity sourcing in cross-border payments.

Ripple allows banks to source liquidity on demand in real-time without the need to pre-fund accounts in foreign banks, while the token enables payment providers to expand into new markets with lower exchange costs and faster payment settlements.

Ripple claims to have a fast payment settlement of just 4 seconds. In comparison with the payment settlement of Ethereum (which clocks in at two minutes), Bitcoin (which is slower at more than an hour) and those of traditional systems (which is incredibly slow at three to five days), Ripple is incredibly fast at conducting transactions.

Ripple is also one of the most scalable among cryptocurrencies, with it being able to process 1,500 transactions per second. Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second, while Bitcoin can only handle three to six transactions per second.

As it is blockchain-based, Ripple is distributed with an open-source technology. It has a growing number of validators spread throughout the world.

Ripple is also one of the most stable cryptocurrencies with a five-year track record of having stable technology and governance that makes it ready to be used by institutions and enterprises. It boasts of having negligible energy consumption, a perfect record of closing ledgers without issues and a dedicated team of world-class engineers.

Ripple is one of the most used cryptocurrencies with it being second behind Bitcoin in terms of market capitalization at 29.69 billion USD. Daily trading volume of Ripple totals to 176.39 million USD, with a monthly trading volume of 11.93 billion USD.

Ripple runs on a network called RippleNet that it says would provide “one frictionless experience to send money globally.”

The network makes it easy to connect and transact worldwide to its more than 100 banks and payment providers in its network.

RippleNet provides its customers with access to a lot of institutions worldwide, instant payment settlements, transparency in making transactions and lower transaction costs.

One of the major features of RippleNet is its source on-demand liquidity that it says offers lower operational costs and greater access for customers.

This feature would mean that Ripple’s users no longer need to have an already funded bank account in a foreign country in making cross-border payments.

RippleNet users can instead have their fiat currency converted into Ripple through a digital asset exchange then be sent to the destination country where the converted Ripple would be exchanged in another digital asset exchange for the destination’s local currency.

The ability of Ripple to not rely on already funded foreign bank accounts and to settle transactions much faster than the usual payment system means much cheaper and faster transactions.

For more information on Ripple, visit their official website through this link.